A present novel and non-trivial system, apparatus, and method for generating HUD image data from synthetic image data is disclosed. Based on a multi-channel pixel intensity data set generated by a synthetic vision system, a single-channel pixel intensity data set representative of a lighted solid image of terrain comprised of a plurality of intensities of one color may be generated. The single-channel pixel intensity image data set may be determined as a function of multi-channel pixel intensity data set and channel weighting, where channel weighting may be based on sky and/or terrain colors employed by an SVS. Based on the multi-channel pixel intensity data set, a three-dimensional perspective scene outside the aircraft may be presented to the pilot on a HUD combiner. Also, the multi-channel pixel intensity data set may be modified by using at least one chroma key, where such chroma key may be assigned to a specific multi-channel pixel intensity value.